This is my first post in the Engine rebuild forum, so I guess you could say that it is getting serious now.

My 1977 2.7 is running well but is seriously burning/losing oil and is constantly marking it's territory where ever we go. It has 151k miles on the clock and I believe that is has never been opened up. From what I can see it has had some decent upgrades over the years. Turbo valve covers, Carrera chain tensioners, pop off valve etc etc. I recently adjusted the valves and all were good except for two that needed a slight tweak.

My cause for concern came a few weeks back during a classic regularity rally here in Germany. We covered around 2000 kilometers and 5, yes FIVE liters of oil. Fellow drivers commented on the oil haze that was billowing out of the silencer and the rear bumper is wearing a black burnt oil stain!

So, my dilemma like many others here is which way do I proceed. I would love to do this myself. I am a Design Engineer and I do all the work on my cars at home if possible. I haven't got nor could I justify dropping 10-15.000€ on a company doing it, so I would have to do as much as I possibly could here.

I have the books, most of the tools, the space and with winter approaching the time. So, should I get on with it and see how it looks on the inside, or should I keep driving it until it stops and really needs a rebuild? ( I know what the wife would say!)

Doing an engine is 90% cleaning, so I'm sure you could save a ton of coin by doing the teardown yourself. If you do a leakdown and compression test first it should tell you a story and then you can decide what you want to do yourself.

From what I can see it looks like it is leaking at the top left bank, around the cyclinder head gaskets. I replaced the oil return tubes a few months ago and they seem to be pretty crap quality. I used aluminium ones that came with some good recommendations but they seem to be a bit wet in places too.

I will start with the leakdown and compression tests as suggested. Thanks for your imput.